… Vargas knows why he didn’t …

Dean Juipe

Thursday, May 3, 2001 | 10:28 a.m.

Soundly beaten and down five times in a fight with Felix Trinidad Dec. 2, Fernando Vargas looks back on the experience and feels he knows what went wrong.

He tried to slug with a slugger.

"I gave him the fight of his life, but I made mistakes that I've since corrected in the gym," Vargas said this week during a conference call to promote his Saturday fight in El Paso with Wilfredo Rivera. "I'm looking forward to being a lot more wiser and smarter than I was with Trinidad.

"I want to show that I can learn from my mistakes."

Vargas, 23, was down twice in the opening round yet survived his fight with Trinidad at Mandalay Bay until referee Jay Nady stopped the bout in the 12th round. The loss dropped Vargas to 20-1.

"Anybody who loses feels bad," Vargas said. "It was definitely hard for me to go back and watch the fight.

"I didn't want to go out for a while. My pride was hurt and I wanted to stay in.

"I thought the fans might be on my back, but people have showed me nothing but love."

Vargas actually had Trinidad down once as well in an action-packed fight that cost Vargas his IBF junior middleweight title. He hopes to rebound against the veteran Rivera, 32-4-1, in a fight to be televised by HBO.

"I know exactly what I did wrong with Trinidad," Vargas said. "I went out there to be a brawler, which I'm not. It didn't work out for me.

"But great champions have lost before, so why can't I lose and come back?"

Vargas' manager, Shelly Finkel, echoed his fighter's thoughts.

"He understands what happened (vs. Trinidad)," Finkel said. "He knows what went wrong, and, to me, that's the first step toward correcting it.

"He lost and he's not blaming anyone else. He's taking the responsibility."

If Vargas has his way with Rivera, he'll remind his fans of his earlier style.

"You're going to see me as I was against (Yory Boy) Campas and (Raul) Marquez," he said. "I'm going to be explosive but intelligent, and pick my spots."